


Differences

by There_Once_Was_A_Girl



Series: The Tales of Jemma Oluransi [6]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 21:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7548370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/There_Once_Was_A_Girl/pseuds/There_Once_Was_A_Girl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some of Holster's old friends from high-school stop by the Haus. They're more than a little bit startled by te fact that Holster is now married and has a daughter. Holster is surprised by how different he's become from the people he grew up with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Differences

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so I wrote this thing I'm not sure exactly what to think of it... Anyway I thought it was important to address how different things have become for Holster and all that jazz. Hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> As always I own nothing Check Please, I think I've been forgetting to disclaimer some of my fics but you all know anyway.

They were in the middle of the season when Holster’s phone started ringing on a Thursday afternoon. He was surprised, when he looked at the caller ID to see that it was Luke Holms. Luke had been his best friend in highschool, along with two other guys Ian, and Jacob they had been a little posse. Holster had drifted apart from them as soon as he left home, though he knew the three of them were close still. He hadn’t talked to Luke in ages…since before Jemma was born at least. 

“Hello?” He couldn’t keep the question out of his voice when he answered the call.

“ADAM!” Luke exclaimed brightly. “How are you?”

“Great man. Amazing really.” Holster answered, “What’s up dude? We haven’t talked in ages.”

“Exactly, exactly. We need to catch up.” Luke declared. “The guys and I are roadtripping down the coast and I remembered that you lived right near Boston. We’re about half an hour away from your dinky little school. You free? Can we hang?” Holster laughed, it was so like his old friends to do something like this with absolutely no warning. 

“Yeah man, I should have some time. Come to the Haus, it’s where a bunch of my team lives.” He told them, giving them the address. 

“Awesome!” Luke said with a grin, “Google says we’ll see you in twenty-six minutes.” 

“See you soon.” Holster agreed, before hanging up. He went through the Haus in the few minutes he had, picking up Jemma’s toys and cleaning up in general. He wasn’t sure why. Luke and his other friends weren’t exactly neat, not like they would expect a clean house from him and a bunch of Hockey players. More than anything he was worried that they would step on Jemma’s stuff and break it. He did his best to open all the baby-gates throughout the Haus as well. He had gotten so used to jumping them that he nearly forgot they blocked off half of the doorways. Ransom was finishing up his last class of the day with Jemma at the moment, the rest of the guys were somewhere. Holster had no idea. Soon there was a loud knock on the door. 

“Adam Birkholtz!” Luke exclaimed when he swung it open. He threw his arms around Holster, “It’s been too long buddy.” 

“It has.” Holster agreed, hugging him and the other guys. “Luke, Ian, Jake! It’s great to see you guys, come in.” he said waving them towards the living room. 

“Damn, for a Hockey frat house this place is nice.” Ian observed, looking around the Haus. Holster glanced around. He hadn’t really noticed but the Haus had turned into a rather homey place. Bitty was constantly improving some point or other, and they generally kept everything except Jemma’s toys neat these days (because Jemma assumed anything she could reach could be put in her mouth). 

“We do okay. Bitty is always yapping after us to clean up. We have a chore wheel.” Holster told them. 

 

“Bitty?” Jake asked. 

“Eric Bittle, guy in the year below me, good right winger. Fastest kid on skates I swear.” 

“Aren’t you Captain of this team though? You’re in charge.” Luke pointed out. Holster chuckled. 

“Co-captain yup, and Ransom and I are in charge. So we tell everyone to listen to Bitty or we’ll all starve to death. Bitty’s the bomb. Dude bakes, like a ton. You don’t know true heaven until you’ve had one of his pies.” Holster said, leading them into the kitchen. The damn place sparkled. They all looked around in surprise.

“Wow, he keeps a clean ship.” Jake muttered. Holster nodded, looking around. Finding what he had been looking for he turned back to them with half an apple pie. 

“Hungry?” He asked. They all nodded and fell upon the pie. Holster watched in amusement as his old friends moaned the praises of Bitty’s pie. 

“So, what is there to do in this town of yours?” Luke asked, “I don’t suppose there are any decent bars or parties in the area?” 

“There’s a couple okay bars. As for parties… well we used to through the sickest kegsters ever, Ransom and I orchestrated parties that people came to from three colleges over.” Holster said with a bit of pride. “But we haven’t done that in ages. More important shit going on. The lax guys throw parties sometimes, but if you hang with those douches I have to disown you as a friend, it’s in the bylaws.” 

“Oh well, if you’re free tonight we can just go hit the bars, hang, like the good old days.” Luke told him. Holster frowned. 

“Hey, man, I wish I could, but we’ve got a game tomorrow. I shouldn’t, besides it’s my turn to take care of Jemma tonight.” Holster told them with a shrug. 

“Who’s Jemma?” Ian asked. Holster’s eyes went wide. He hadn’t even thought about the fact that the guys might not know he was married and had a daughter. He figured the news would have spread through his hometown friends by now. 

“Oh, she’s-” He was interrupted by the sound of the Haus door opening and Ransom’s voice. 

“Holster?” he called, “You home?” 

“In the kitchen.” Holster shouted back. He heard the double thunk that was Ransom dropping his bag, and then Jemma’s stuff in the living room, before Ransom ducked into the kitchen, Jemma in his arms. 

“Hey,” Ransom murmured as he came into the kitchen and pecked Holster on the lips. He obviously hadn’t seen the other three guys standing to the side. 

“Hey, how was your day?” Holster asked, leaning over to kiss Jemma on the forehead. He ignored his old friends, who were staring at them, dumbstruck, and focused on his family.

“Good. Jemma was a darling today, I think she’s finally over that little cold she had.” Ransom told him. Holster grinned. 

“Do you feel better, sweetpea?” he asked Jemma. She nodded. 

“Yup!” she agreed, then reached out to him. He hoisted her into his arms. 

“I’m so glad, baby-girl.” He told her with a grin. 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Ransom said, spotting the other guys in the kitchen. “I didn’t realize anyone else was here.” 

“It’s all good.” Holster told him, “I told you about Luke and the guys right? Luke, Ian, Jacob, my old friends from home.” He said gesturing to each of them. Ransom nodded. Of course he had told Ransom, he told Ransom everything. 

“Guys, this is Ransom, that’s from Justin Oluransi, my best bro, defensive-partner, and husband.” Holster said to his friends, “And this little girl is our daughter, Jemma.” He added bouncing Jemma a little. 

“What the fu-” Jacob started, Ian clapped a hand over his mouth. 

“Children present.” He warned. Holster laughed. 

“Don’t worry about it.” he muttered. “Our team is good, but they aren’t that well behaved.” 

“When did you get married, Birkholtz?” Luke demanded. 

“It’s Oluransi now actually. We got married March twenty-second, last year.” Holster answered. Ransom grinned and nodded. 

“That’s right, don’t you forget it.” He said. 

“Hey, why do you act like I’m the one who would forget our anniversary in this relationship?” Holster demanded. “Like I’m the dude.”

“You are the dude, we’re both dudes, but you’re more forgetful than me.” Ransom told him. 

“I hate the fact that you’re probably right.” Holster muttered. He looked down at Jemma. “Jems these men are Papa’s friends, that’s Luke, and Ian, and Jacob.” He told his daughter pointing them out. 

“Hi.” Jemma murmured waving a little.

“Hi.” Ian managed, Jake waved, Luke stared. Holster sighed. 

“Jemma darling do you want to go play in the living room while Papa and Daddy talk?” he asked. She thought for a moment and then nodded. He took her through to the living room, closed the baby gates so she couldn’t wander, and set her basket of toys on the ground. Once he was sure she was playing happily he returned to the kitchen. 

“Since when are you gay?” Luke asked. 

“For what it’s worth I’m bisexual. Both of us are.” Holster told him. 

“You married a guy though.” Jake pointed out.

“Yes, bisexual means I’m attracted to both men and women, that didn’t end because I married a guy. The same stands if I had married a girl.” Holster reminded him, irritably. It always bothered him when people implied that getting married meant picking a side. “Anyway, I’ve always been bi, I think. I mean, it took forever for me to figure that out, but I always have been. Whatever I am I’m with Ransom.” 

“That’s right.” Ransom teased. Holster rolled his eyes. 

“Oh I was in love with you when I was still convinced I was straight.” He muttered. “Anyway, sorry to like, spring that on you guys. I figured everyone back home would be gossiping about it until the whole state knew, my family was at our wedding after all.” 

“I guess not.” Luke said, he pulled a chair out from the kitchen table and sat down. “No one told us. You didn’t tell us that you got married and had a daughter. I was your best friend, dude. We used to always say we would be best men at each other’s weddings.” He said resentfully. 

“We were in high-school.” Holster told him, “You were my best friend then, but we haven’t seen each other in ages. Besides, I’ve been a bit busy. Jemma was born in August, to Ransom’s ex-girlfriend who didn’t tell anyone anything, she came to us in November. Then we were suddenly trying to figure out how to raise this baby girl together.” 

“And we weren’t even together at that point.” Ransom pointed out. Holster nodded. 

“Nope.” he agreed, “We agreed to raise Jemma together from the beginning, but we weren’t dating then. I was still convinced I was straight, it was unfortunate. Took me until Christmas to realize how in love with him I was, but I was too damn scared of losing him to say anything about it. It was Jemma’s six month birthday when Jemma’s grandparents came back.” Ransom and Holster shuddered in unison. 

“Wait, what happened to her mom anyway?” Ian asked. 

“Rachel died in child birth.” Ransom told him. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, that blows.” Ian told him apologetically. 

“It’s a horrible thing, she had a heart condition apparently. I shouldn’t have dated her in the first place, I was just trying to get over Holster.” Ransom admitted. “But thank you all the same.” 

“So the grandparents?” Jake prompted. 

“Yeah, they’re horrible, Satan spawn. Anyway they gave Jemma to us because they blamed her for their daughter’s death, even though they were the ones who told her she couldn’t get an abortion even though they knew about her weak heart and the doctors warned them it might kill her. Also, Jems is black, like me. They never said it but I could tell that they didn’t like it.” Ransom told them. 

“They’re awful.” Holster agreed. “They came back after three months to check in on us, on Jemma’s six month birthday. When they realized that I was acting as Jemma’s second parent, that I was her father as well, they freaked. They started screaming about us being sinful and how they wouldn’t let their granddaughter grow up like that. Even though we still weren’t together at that point. So then they decided to challenge Rans for custody.” 

“It didn’t look good in the beginning, after all I was a twenty-one year old college athlete without a job living in a frat house.” Ransom murmured, “Our lawyer, a friend of Shitty’s knew we didn’t really have a good position.”

“Not when I technically had no official association with them, and they are successful and well established… it was bad. So I proposed.” Holster said. 

“Wait were you two together at that point?” Ian demanded. They both shook their heads in unison. 

“Nope.” Holster confessed, “I mean, I think we both knew, knew that we wanted to be, sort of anyway, but we still weren’t actually together. Shitty, our friend, was just about ready to kill us. When I bought him his engagement ring, he literally chased me across campus and tackled me in fury and an attempt to get me to fess up to my feelings.”

“We were idiots.” Ransom muttered, holding out his hand so they could see his ring. “Anyway, the night before our wedding, I finally told him that I couldn’t marry him just for our daughter, that I wanted to marry him because I was in love with him.” 

“And I told him that we were on the same page.” Holster laughed. “And we were both laughing deleriously and we hadn’t even kissed yet when Bitty came up and told me to get out because we couldn’t see each other before the wedding.” 

“Our first kiss was literally at the altar.” Ransom agreed. “It was a mess, but it worked.” 

“It’s definitely a story.” Holster agreed. “We were a mess, but we’ve got it pretty sorted now. It was probably not the best idea, I mean, I would definitely advise that most people spend a while dating before getting married, but it worked for us.” 

“I wouldn’t trade our story for the world.” Ransom told him. “Obnoxious teammates and all.”

“Wow… That’s… really insane.” Luke said at last. “Like crazy fucked up levels of insane. I get why you’ve been busy now, though I still kinda wish you told me you are married and have children.” 

“Child.” Holster pointed out. “We don’t want to have another one until Jemma is at least three I think, once she’s potty trained and I have a solid job and Rans is in med school we’ll talk about it.” Ransom nodded. The other guys stared. 

“You’ve talked about it?” Jake asked. Holster nodded and shrugged. 

“Yeah, we’re married, we have a daughter, I think both of us kinda knew soon afterwards that we were going to want more. It’s an important conversation that responsible married people must have.” He answered. 

“Wow.” Ian muttered. 

“Yeah, sorry guys, I just figured you knew. So like, I’d love to hang more but I know Rans had a thing to go to tonight so I should really be around for Jemma.” 

“Nah, the speaker actually canceled, I meant to tell you that.” Ransom told him. “I’ve got Jemma for tonight if you want.” 

“Are you sure?” Holster asked. 

“Go get a drink with your friends, Holst. They’re here for a day, Jems and I will be around everyday for the rest of your life.” Ransom told him. “It’s fine.” 

“You’re the best.” Holster told him. He pecked him on the lips. “Love you.” 

“Love you too. Now all of you shoo.” Ransom told him, heading into the living room to play with Jemma. Holster shrugged and trooped outside with his friends. He led them to the team’s favorite pub. 

“Well, I’m glad you got permission to come out with us.” Luke teased. “Jeez Birkholtz.” 

“Every husband has to ask his wife for permission to go drinking.” Jake added chuckling.

“My name isn’t Birkholtz dude, and don’t make fun of my marriage.” Holster told them. “My name is Adam Oluransi these days I told you that, though you can always call me Holster.”

“Woah, we’re just fucking with you dude.” Ian muttered, “It’s cool, Adam.” 

“I get a little sensitive about it sometimes, I… Rans and I have been through a lot of shit. He and Jemma are my whole world. I love them more than anything, but it’s been heavily implied to me by former friends and family that they think I made a mistake. Or they give me shit because I married a man. Or they give me shit because I married a black man.” Holster muttered. “It’s not easy being in an interracial gay marriage with a child, if you were curious, not even in a town as liberal as this, and I’ve got the easy side of it being the white guy.” 

“Really, people give you shit because your husband is black? That’s fucked up.” Luke told him pointedly. 

“Yup, it’s truly a crazy fucking world out there.” Holster agreed. “You never think about this shit, about the way people treat mixed kids, how they treat black guys, until suddenly it’s right there in your face. I mean, we’re looking for cities we could live in, places where there’s a good medical school and also companies with openings in my field, but we have to look at more than that. There could be places where they have a great medical school for Ransom, and there are more than a few opportunities for me there but we just can’t move to some cities.” 

“What exactly do you mean?” Jake asked. 

“There are certain places I just won’t move with my black husband, Jake. For starters we need to go someplace where our marriage is legal, and it isn’t in all places. There are plenty of states where people would try to tell me that I have no rights to my daughter. I might not mind, after all I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks but there are places where they wouldn’t count me as family if Ransom or Jemma was in the hospital. I mean, my husband could get injured and be dying in a hospital room and they wouldn’t let me in. But more than that there are places where we can’t go because I would be too terrified to let Rans out of the house. I’m not used to the type of racism that some places have, Ransom isn’t either. He’s been dealing with some of it his whole life but it’s not the same here. It’s not like he’s got to be afraid of the cops around Samwell. But some places… We’d live in perpetual fear that he’d get stopped for speeding or something and then never come home. I couldn’t survive that.” Holster explained, trying not to let his voice shake with anger or with fear. 

“Oh shit, that’s… I didn’t think about that.” 

“Yeah, we don’t. We’re white guys. I’ve got blonde hair, blue eyes, and over six feet of height.” Holster agreed. “And sure we can sit here and agree that obviously racisim is horrible and awful, and that we need to end discrimination, but it’s a whole different thing when it’s closer to home. Suddenly it’s right there in my face. This is my husband, my daughter who are in danger here. I mean, I’m sitting here thinking about how I’m going to have to make sure my daughter learns to be a little bit afraid of some people. I don’t want to, I don’t ever want her to be afraid, but I’d rather have her grow up scared than not grow up.” 

It was a horrible thing to have to consider, but it seemed like every few weeks there was a new name on the news, more black people shot by police, or other crazy racist people, or something equally horrendous. It scared him more than he was ever willing to tell Ransom, more than he wanted to admit. Still, Rans knew. It was the same with the fact that they were in a gay relationship. All of a sudden all of the homophobes screaming slurs on the news weren’t just idiots to Holster, but people who truly frightened him. The hate crimes he heard about on the news weren’t just tragedies, they were attacks against his community, and reminders that that could easily be Ransom or him. Holster hadn’t realized before how much discrimination there really was in the world, until suddenly it was directed at him and his family. He had been a presumed straight white guy for a long time, then all of a sudden he was married to a man and his daughter was half-black. It was more than a little terrifying. 

“That’s rough as shit, bro. I’m sorry.” Ian said solemnly. Holster shrugged. 

“It is what it is. I’m gonna do the best I can.” He answered. “Anyway, what about you guys? How has life been treating you all?” He asked. He let their conversation wash over him, soaking in the details of their lives. Luke had had a few different girlfriends since they last talked, but was single at the moment, they all had starting out sorts of jobs… Holster was astonished by how transient it all seemed. None of it was constant or truly meaningful, they had flings for relationships, they still partied over the weekends, and worked jobs that weren’t going to turn into careers. He wondered, suddenly if this was the type of person he would be at the moment if he hadn’t met Ransom. If it wasn’t for Jemma and Ransom would he be the same guy? Or would he have become the same person as his old friends? It wasn’t that they weren’t good guys, they were all nice enough, smart enough. They’d probably pull themselves together soon enough, get decent jobs, find women who they liked enough to marry and just… live average lives. 

Holster hadn’t realized how frightening that prospect was. He could imagine it, a future in which Jemma hadn’t come to them, in which he hadn’t met Ransom, married Ransom. He could see himself marrying some nice girl who he liked, maybe even loved, who he’d get along with perfectly well for the rest of his life. He could imagine living in some suburban house that looked exactly like all the houses around it, and working a job that was just fine, and made a respectable amount of money. He could imagine living a perfectly normal average life that didn’t make a single lasting mark on the world around him, and then just dying. It was horrifying. He couldn’t say why exactly, it wasn’t an unhappy image necessarily. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t particularly great either. Some part of his mind reminded him that his life with Ransom wouldn’t necessarily be all that different. He would get his respectable job, they would live in a normal house, and raise their daughter and live a not too far from average life… Except no life with Ransom could really be average. 

He didn’t know what it was precisely that made it so different, but the future was so much less terrifying when he knew that Ransom would be right there by his side. Everything felt a little bit more exciting when they were together, everything felt a little bit more possible. It was like raising Jemma, he was sure that none of his old friends could even imagine doing something like that, but when it was him and Ransom they had done it without question. When he was with Ransom Holster felt a little unstoppable. It was a heady sort of revelation. Even though they had been married a year Holster still occasionally had moments where he felt like he was falling love all over again, moments when it would hit him again, that Ransom was just the one. They were great moments. 

Holster forced himself to have a couple drinks with the guys before saying that he had to get home. He offered them the couch but they had apparently decided to get a motel room. He couldn’t blame them. He walked home alone, quick-stepping a little, eager to get back to his husband. He found Ransom in the living room, cleaning up Jemma’s toys. Their daughter was presumably already asleep. Ransom stood up when he noticed Holster walk in. 

“How was-” Holster silenced his husband’s question about his evening with a passionate bruising kiss. Ransom seemed a little surprised but kissed back eagerly. When Holster finally pulled back both of them were breathless. Holster still had his arms tight around Ransom, but Rans wasn’t complaining. Instead he rested his head on Holster’s shoulder. 

“What was that for?” He asked softly. 

“I just love you so goddamn much.” Holster murmured. “I’d like to say I can’t imagine life without you but I can and it’s terrifying. You make the whole world seem so much brighter, more exciting, more beautiful. You make everything seem possible. I just… it just hits me sometimes, and I love you so much and I need you to know.” 

“You’re adorable.” Ransom murmured, leaning up to kiss him again. “I love you too, Holst, so fucking much.”

**Author's Note:**

> What did you guys think? I wasn't positive about this one. I love you guys for reading commenting and leaving kudos!
> 
> Edited 6-2-2017 to take out a super questionable line, sorry about the faux pas there, it was hella problematic and idk what I was thinking when I wrote it


End file.
